Cablevision Systems CEO James Dolan earned $11.4 million in 2011, down from $13.4 million the year before and from $17.1 million the year before that.

According to an SEC filing Thursday, the CEO was paid $1.75 million in salary, which was up from $1.5 million a year earlier, plus another $1 million in bonus, up from zero a year prior. The shortfall came by way of his non-equity incentive plan, which was worth $5.3 million in 2011 but worth $8.6 million a year before.

Company chairman Charles Dolan also earned less in 2011 ($11 million) than he did in 2010 ($13.8 million). In 2009 he earned $16 million.

Gregg Seibert, an executive vp who added the title CFO in June 2011, though, saw a healthy increase, earning $6.5 million in 2011 compared with $3.8 million the prior year when he was executive vp but not CFO.

The biggest money, though, went to Thomas Rutledge, the COO who quit in December to become CEO of formerly bankrupt Charter Communications. Rutledge earned $23.2 million in 2011 from Cablevision, down from $28.2 million in 2010 and $26.1 million the year before that.

When Rutledge joined Charter, he was awarded stock in that company that at the time was worth $70 million, and its value has climbed about 15 percent since then.